Danny Rose’s winner against Swansea on Sunday could make all the difference to Tottenham’s title hopes.
Photograph: Russell Cheyne/Reuters

Danny Rose has revealed his own cautious refusal to believe Tottenham Hotspur are real contenders to claim a first league title in 55 years has been sorely tested by his team-mates’ growing conviction that the Premier League can be secured.

The left-back’s first goal of the season completed Spurs’ comeback against Swansea City at White Hart Lane on Sunday to extend their winning sequence to six league games and leave them hovering on Leicester City’s shoulder at the top of the division. The manager, Mauricio Pochettino, insisted post-match that “nobody is speaking about the title in our dressing room”, yet his players have suggested otherwise as they prepare for this week’s critical derbies against West Ham United and Arsenal.

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“I refuse to believe … no, I’d like to believe we can, but I don’t want to think that,” said Rose when asked if a win as dramatic as that against Swansea, albeit after a dominant Spurs performance, had fuelled conviction within the squad that the title can be theirs. “Before the Manchester City game [on 14 February] I was having dinner with Érik Lamela and I was still asking him if he reckoned we can finish top four. I’ve never seen someone look at me with such disgust. He said: ‘My friend, we can win the league.’

“I realise the position we are in but I don’t want to get too carried away. Games like the one Leicester had on Saturday, with them scoring in the last minute … you never know, it could be a pivotal moment for them. Come the end of the season, I hope me scoring the winner against Swansea can be a pivotal moment for Tottenham. I hope it’s a vital goal. I haven’t seen a goalkeeping performance like Lukasz Fabianski’s in my whole career. But we showed a great attitude and we didn’t go under.”

Spurs will travel to Upton Park on Wednesday – where West Ham are unbeaten since August – having not lost away from home since the season’s opening day. Their only other defeats this term have come at White Hart Lane, to Newcastle and the leaders Leicester, but there was encouragement to be drawn from their stubborn pursuit of the points against Swansea finally yielding reward. Opponents have tended to seek to stifle Pochettino’s side this year, but here was evidence they can still prevail. Tottenham mustered 34 scoring attempts on Sunday, with Rose eventually claiming the win 13 minutes from time.

“Last season teams didn’t really respect us and they came to the Lane thinking they would get a few chances, playing with two strikers and trying to score as many as possible, but it’s different this season,” said Rose, whose side have already recovered 17 points from losing positions this term, more than any other team. “Opponents know we’re a much better team, and that’s credit to us. It’s very difficult once a team get into position, trying to break them down. Luckily we’ve managed to do that in the majority of games this season and hopefully we can keep going until the end.

“That ‘winning points from a losing position’ is not something you want because it means you’re constantly going behind and having to fight to come back. Our pitch isn’t the biggest so it’s harder if we go in [at half-time] behind, but we’ve got great quality throughout the squad. It’s our problem to work out how to break teams down and, for the majority of games this season, we’ve done that. That shows the great character the manager has instilled through the club, from top to bottom. A lot of credit has to go to him and his staff. We all feel very privileged to be here working under him. We’ve got a great team around and it is a never-say-die attitude.”